In places like open pit mines, an operation for loading mined, quarried or excavated materials (hereinafter referred to as “extracted materials”) such as minerals, earth and sand onto a dump truck is carried out by using a loading machine such as a hydraulic excavator or a wheel loader. In this operation, the dump truck is required to stop and park at/in appropriate position and direction with which the loading operation by the loading machine can be performed easily. This parking operation is generally carried out by the operator of the dump truck.
Meanwhile, autonomous dump trucks capable of traveling autonomously without needing the operator have been proposed in order to reduce the costs and improve the safety.
In the case of a dump truck operated by an operator, the parking position and the parking direction of the dump truck with respect to the loading machine can be determined by the operator. However, an autonomous dump truck has to autonomously determine the parking position and the parking direction.
A conventional technology regarding such an autonomous dump truck has been disclosed in JP,A 8-263138 (Patent Literature 1), for example. The Patent Literature 1 describes a technology for determining the parking position and the parking direction of the autonomous dump truck at/in relative position and direction previously fixed with respect to the position of the loading machine.